Wrestling | 1/30/2026 8:50:00 PM

Pete Willson Wheaton College (Ill.) Invitational Website

Wheaton, Ill. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse wrestling team is in second place after the first day of action at the Pete Willson Wheaton College (Ill.) Invitational on Friday in King Arena. The Eagles have 93.5 team points.

UW-Eau Claire leads with 97.0 points. Roanoke College (Va.) is third with 89.0 points followed by UW-Whitewater fourth with 87.0 and the University of Chicago (Ill.) fifth with 77.0. A total of 30 teams have scored points.

In Friday's action, five wrestlers advanced to Saturday's semifinals. Talan Schutte (141-pounds), Tanner Gerber (165), Eddie Simes (174), Sedeeq AlObaidi (184) and Markos Mihalopoulos (285) advanced in the winner's bracket on Friday.

Schutte, Gerber, Simes and Mihalopoulos all went 3-0 while AlObaidi finished 2-0.

Schutte won by decision (10-4) over Luke Adams of The University of the Ozarks (Ark.) in the first round and by fall (1:56) over Cahiel Linton of Mount St. Joseph University (Ohio) in the second round. He won by fall (3:46) over Jake Yowell of Roanoke (Va.) in the quarterfinals.

Gerber went 3-0 on Friday, earning a technical fall (17-2, 1:27) versus Brayden Kuhling of Mount St. Joseph (Mich.) in the first round and winning by fall (0:21) over James Tuepker of Ozarks (Ark.) in the second round. He advanced to the semifinals with a win by fall (2:58) over UW-Stevens Point's Caden Young in the quarterfinals.

Simes won by technical fall (16-0, 4:05) over Nathaniel Kisgen of Concordia College Moorhead (Minn.) in the first round and by fall (3:31) over Corey Bradley of Elmhurst College (Ill.) in the second round. He earned a major decision win (12-0) over Chase Crutchley of Case Western Reserve (Ohio) in the quarterfinals.

AlObaidi received a first-round bye at 184-pounds on Friday before winning by decision (4-1) over Austin Wilkins of Cornell College (Iowa) in the second round. He advanced to the semifinals with a decision (2-1) over Austin Brass of Messiah University (Pa.) in the quarterfinals.

Mihalopoulos went 3-0 on Friday's opening day, earning a major decision (10-1) over Chicago's (Ill.) Edward Perry in the first round. He won by decision (8-1) over Jackson Kirsch of UW-Platteville in the second round and by decision (4-2) over Ka Ron Lewis of Ozarks (Ark.) in the quarterfinals.

UWL's Wyatt Magolski (133), Aidan Baum (149) and Joe Penchi (157) advanced to Saturday's consolation round. Magolski won by fall (1:52) over Connor Kerwin of Wilkes University (Pa.) in the opening round and by fall (6:33) over Nolan Frye of the University of Mount Union (Ohio) in the second round. Magolski lost by decision (6-4) to Jordan Rasof of UW-Whitewater in the quarterfinals but came back with a sudden victory (9-6) over Kie Anderson of Concordia Moorhead (Minn.) in the consolation fourth round.

Baum advanced to Saturday with three straight wins after an opening round loss. He lost by decision (5-2) to UW-Whitewater's Dominik Mallinder in the first round but won by fall (6:40) over Nicholas Bittner of Wheaton (Ill.) in the consolation second round. Baum won by fall (4:30) over Wilkes' (Pa.) Ryan Santiago in the consolation third round and by decision (7-4) over UW-Stevens Point's Riese Thornberry in the fourth round.

Penchi went 3-1 at 157-pounds. He won by fall (3:32) over Constatine Isaac of Rhode Island College in the first round and by decision (5-3) over Deakin Trotzer of UW-Stevens Point in the second round. After losing by decision (6-4) to Roanoke's (Va.) Casey Smith in the quarterfinals, Penchi won by fall (1:50) over Chicago's (Ill.) Daniel Gunlogson in the consolation round.

The Eagles' Cole Gentsch went 2-2 at 125-pounds. He won by fall (4:21) over Gus Smith of Wilkes (Pa.) in the first round before a loss by major decision (10-0) to Travis Moelter of UW-Eau Claire in the second round. Gentsch won by fall (1:38) over MSOE's (Wis.) Lane Andersen in the consolation second round but lost by decision (10-6) to Millikin University's (Ill.) Mason Franklin in the consolation third round.

Kash Macumber went 0-1 at 197-pounds on Friday. He lost by fall (5:38) to UW-Eau Claire's Ian Pepple in the second round after a first-round bye and was forced to medically forfeit in the second round to John Carroll University's (Ohio) Bear Horgan in the second round.

Second and final day action continues Saturday, January 31 at 11 a.m.